Live equipment exhibition also offers discussions on scrap preparation techniques.

Final preparations are being put in place for the 2022 edition of Scrap Expo, which is hosted by the Recycling Today Media Group and will take place Sept. 13-14 at the Kentucky Exhibition Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Billed as a live equipment demonstration event, Scrap Expo also will feature programming offering updates and information on processing techniques and panel discussions on preparing ferrous and nonferrous scrap for the evolving market of the 2020s.

Expo attendees are being drawn from the scrap metal recycling, demolition, auto salvage and other industry sectors that generate, prepare and sell scrap metal commodities.

The nearly 50 exhibiting companies at Scrap Expo will include makers of scrap handling, shearing, baling, shredding and sorting equipment and firms that offer recycling-specific services and software.

“It’s been gratifying to see the support we’ve received from exhibitors and sponsors,” Recycling Today Media Group Publisher Jim Keefe says. “Every company involved is eager to connect with the people who shop for and purchase their services. We really want the two days to offer plenty of those kinds of connections.”

Six levels of sponsorships are tied to the event, with two companies committed to the top Titanium Sponsor tier: Saint Louis-based scrap processing and trading firm Alter Trading Corp. and Stanley, North Carolina-based material handling equipment provider Sennebogen LLC.

Serving as the event’s Platinum Sponsor is Charlotte, North Carolina-based material handling equipment distributor Republic, while Scrap Expo’s Gold Sponsor is multiline and multilocation equipment dealership Company Wrench, which is based in Ohio.

When attendees are not actively shopping for equipment, they can choose to attend sessions and scrap-related podcast recordings.

Scrap Expo programming includes two sessions devoted to the preparation and marketing of scrap—one on ferrous materials and the other on nonferrous. Panelists for these sessions have been drawn from Alter Trading, Coremet Trading, Davis Index, GLE Scrap Metal, SA Recycling, Smart Recycling Management and United Metals Recycling.

Each day at lunchtime will offer a live podcast recording. Tuesday, Sept. 13, it’s Brett Ekart of Idaho-based United Metals Recycling recording an episode of his popular “A Scrap Life” podcast with guest Norman Wright of Colorado-based Stadium Auto Parts. The following day at noon, John Sacco of California-based Sierra International Machinery takes the stage to interview Alter Trading CEO Jay Robinovitz for a recording of his “Pile of Scrap” podcast.

The remaining Scrap Expo sessions will add to the equipment shopping and research experience. A series of technicians from the following companies will offer insight into developments tied to several types of processing equipment or services: Company Wrench, Genesis Attachments, GreenSpark Software, Sennebogen LLC and Sierra International Machinery.

Although on-site registrations will be accepted, those who preregistered did so at discounted rates.

The Houston-based waste management firm has acquired businesses in Indiana and Virginia.

Houston-based WM has made two acquisitions in recent weeks. The company acquired Clayton, Indiana-based Ray’s Trash Service and Harrisonburg, Virginia-based Green Earth LLC.

According to a report from Indianapolis-based WRTV, WM acquired key assets of Ray’s Trash Service, which is a large family-owned recycling and waste collection operation.

Ray’s Trash Service was founded in 1965 and provides recycling and waste disposal services for 17 counties in central Indiana, according to information on the company’s website. It operates eight facilities across the region and offers construction site services, including LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-compliant ones.

"We look forward to the integration and value that this acquisition will bring to expand and advance WM's environmental services in central Indiana," WM says in a statement it has shared with Recycling Today regarding this acquisition. "We are excited to welcome our new employees into the WM family and for the opportunity to provide exceptional service to our customers in the Indianapolis market. WM remains committed to providing the Indianapolis area with quality recycling and waste disposal services for years to come, with an emphasis on supporting the cultivation of community vitality and sustainable growth in the region."

According to a letter Green Earth sent to its customers, WM completed the acquisition of that business Sept. 1. Green Earth has provided residential and commercial collection services to residents in Rockingham County, Virginia, as well as a material recovery facility and container rental services. The Facebook page of Green Earth indicates it focused in part on collecting construction and demolition (C&D) materials.

Green Earth’s letter to its customers states that WM has been a waste services provider in Virginia’s Rockingham County for more than 20 years. Green Earth says it chose WM as a buyer since it is “confident that they are the company most capable of providing the same safe and superior service” to its customers.

WM did not share how much it paid for these two acquisitions; however, according to the company's second-quarter earnings report, WM intends to spend $300 to $400 million on acquisitions in its 2022 fiscal year.

The New Philadelphia, Ohio, company’s Series B investment round will be used to expand the production of trucks and electric vehicles.

Battle Motors, New Philadelphia, Ohio, formerly Crane Carrier Co. (CCC), has completed a Series B investment round with $150 million in new growth capital from a cornerstone global institutional investor.

This capital raise follows a $120 million Series A investment round announced in December 2021.

“We have validated our strategic growth initiatives and the attractive sector fundamentals while identifying additional market opportunity,” Battle Motors CEO Michael Patterson says.

The proceeds from this capital raise will be used to expand production throughput to 16 trucks per day, fulfill an existing order backlog, expand EV manufacturing capabilities and cover general corporate purposes.

Since acquiring CCC in 2021, Battle Motors has executed its expansion plans, aiming to lead the electrification of the vocational fleet truck industry. Since 2021, the company has increased production throughput at its Ohio manufacturing facility from an average of less than one truck per day to its current daily throughput of approximately six trucks per day by increasing automation, expanding floorspace to 325,000 square feet and nearly tripling its workforce to 300 employees. Additionally, Battle Motors has bolstered its management team by hiring several industry veterans. The company also has expanded its dealer network and successfully gained market share in North America.

“Striving for daily continuous improvement throughout the company gave Battle Motors the ability to increase production within its legacy footprint while construction was still underway,” Battle Motors Chief Operating Officer Cody Boggs says. “Challenging ourselves to learn from adversity and to be better every single day has built the exceptional team necessary to reach all our goals. Now we have the manufacturing facility to match.”

Development and commercialization of a reliable severe-duty EV (electric vehicle) truck has been central to the Battle Motors strategy, and the company has announced Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) certification for its EV truck line. Complementing the EV rollout, Battle Motors has developed its innovative “Smart Cab” platform which includes enhanced Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) and a proprietary connectivity software system, RevolutionOS, designed to deliver actionable data to drivers and fleet managers for enhanced safety, efficiency and security.

A leader in the vocational truck industry, Battle Motors now is delivering its Class 8 severe-duty electric truck to refuse customers and serves more than 750 municipal customers through 180 dealers in more than 320 locations across the United States and Canada.

“Receiving FMVSS certifications and moving into production on our first EV model validates our team’s perseverance in creating revolutionary innovations, and expanding our EV capabilities allows us to create even more disruptive technologies to deliver to the market,” Batttle Motors Chief Technology Officer Kelleigh Ash says.

BTIG LLC served as financial advisor to Battle Motors in connection with the capital raise.

Secretary of Energy visits Volvo dealership to see Volvo VNR Electric.

Jennifer Granholm, secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, visited TEC Equipment in Fontana, California, in early September to see Mack and Volvo electric vehicle (EV) Class 8 collection and delivery trucks offered by the dealership.

During the visit, Volvo Trucks North America says Granholm and U.S. Representative Pete Aguilar (D-31) “experienced first-hand the Volvo VNR Electric, a battery-electric, zero-tailpipe-emissions transport solution ideally suited for regional haul, drayage, pickup and local delivery.”

The truck maker adds, “They learned about the valuable outcomes from the Volvo LIGHTS project, an innovative three-year project that brought together 14 public and private partners, including Volvo Group, Volvo Trucks and TEC Equipment, to design and implement a blueprint for the robust ecosystem necessary to deploy battery-electric trucks and equipment at scale.”

Taking part in the visit on behalf of Volvo was Jonathan Miller, senior vice president with the truck maker.

Volvo says that while in Fontana, Granholm “discussed the transformative investments in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to increase access to affordable electric vehicles.”

Western Canadian company is creating marketable soil and rock materials using CDE wash plant.

A production line designed by United Kingdom-based CDE Global has helped the GRT Resource Regeneration Facility in Nanaimo, British Columbia, divert some 70,000 metric tons of displaced soil materials from landfills in the past 15 months.

GRT and CDE say their cooperation on the system “has led to the responsible recovery and recycling of a range of clean and contaminated soils in southern British Columbia.”

As urban development sites are scarce in British Columbia, available land often requires soil removal to remediate trace contamination. In other cases, excavated material isn’t structurally suitable to be reused as fill.

According to CDE, GRT’s founders recognized an opportunity for resource recovery in the region and turned to CDE as a vendor who could assist the firm in realizing its environmental and fiscal goals. GRT chose to invest in CDE technology in part because it would support the company’s research and development efforts to offer coal removal from soil—a main contaminant in the Nanaimo region.

GRT receives raw feed material from throughout the region, resulting from excavations for residential developments, brownfield/remediation sites, tunneling projects, hydrovac trucks, and river or ocean dredge projects.

GRT CEO Peter Reid says, “CDE has been an excellent partner to GRT. Starting with dredge dewatering, CDE has provided a framework for GRT to add on various technologies in turning excess contaminated soils to aggregate for future use in construction projects.”

Reid continues, “Between June 2021 and June 2022, GRT’s waste-to-resource facility diverted 70,000 metric tons from local landfills. We are proud that our partnership with CDE has produced such a positive impact on the environment.”

Adrian Convery, business development manager at CDE, says, “GRT’s business model transforms the existing value chain in Vancouver Island. It has been a great experience to have worked with a team that shares our values and objectives from the inception of this partnership, and CDE look forward to developing this partnership in the near future.”

GRT’s facility uses a CDE wash plant that includes a CDE feed hopper and an AggMax modular logwasher. The AggMax combines prescreening, scrubbing and organics removal within a Rotomax logwasher, offering sizing, stockpiling, fines recovery and filtrates removal on a compact chassis

An EvoWash sand washing and classification unit with modular hydro cyclone technology gives GRT control of silt cut points, designed to help GRT produce high-quality in-spec materials. Combined with CDE’s Infinity dewatering screen technology, it results in an increased power to weight ratio for lower running costs through reduced power consumption.

An AquaCycle is a high-rate thickener and primary stage water management system that recycles up to 90 percent of the process water for reuse in the system. GRT combines the AquaCycle with its own wastewater treatment technologies to remove environmental contaminants from the water, say the companies. “This minimizes discharges to the environment, which is in line with GRT’s ethos of environmental responsibility,” states CDE.

The plant produces 40 tons per hour of reusable and saleable products that are supplied to the local construction industry, including sand, pea gravel, oversized rock and 4-inch-minus rock. Leftover contaminated material is currently incorporated into GRT’s clay output, then transferred to a provincially permitted facility to be beneficially reused as landfill cover. The companies say GRT also is exploring ways to extract more benefit from this product.

CDE, which has a North American office in Texas, describes itself as a provider of wet processing equipment for recycling operations, quarries, and mines globally.